Indian Ocean Tsunami Memorials Mark 20 Years of One of History’s Deadliest Natural Disasters Blogging Sole

People gathered to pray and visited mass graves in Indonesia’s Aceh province on Thursday to mark 20 years since the mass attack. Tsunami in the Indian Ocean struck the region in one of the worst natural disasters in modern history.

Many cried as they laid flowers at a mass grave in the village of Ulee Lheue, where more than 14,000 unidentified tsunami victims are buried. It is one of several mass graves in Banda Aceh, the capital of Indonesia’s northernmost province, which was one of the worst-hit areas by a 9.1 magnitude earthquake and the massive tsunami it triggered.

“We miss them and we still don’t know where they are. All we know is that every year we visit the mass graves of Ulee Lhue and Siron,” said Muhamad Amirudin, who lost two of his children 20 years ago and was never reunited. their bodies.

“This life is only temporary, so we do our best to be helpful to others,” Amirudin said, visiting the grave with his wife.

Another man, Nurkhalis, 52, told the Reuters news agency that his wife, children, parents and in-laws were all swept away by the tsunami.

“Even though time has passed until now, the same feeling haunts us on this date, especially those of us who lost our families at that time,” he said.

The powerful earthquake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra on December 26, 2004 triggered a tsunami that killed about 230,000 people in a dozen countries, reaching as far as East Africa. Waves up to 100 feet high swept away almost everything – and everyone – in their path.

Some 1.7 million people were movedmainly in the four most affected countries: Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand.

More than 170,000 people have died in Indonesia alone.

Even though 20 years have passed, Indonesian survivors are still mourning the loved ones they lost to the giant wave that flattened buildings all the way to the provincial capital of Banda Aceh.

Hundreds of people gathered to pray at the Baiturrahman Mosque in downtown Banda Aceh. Sirens sounded throughout the city for three minutes to mark the time of the earthquake.

Indonesia, located along the fault lines that make up the Pacific “Ring of Fire” is particularly vulnerable to earthquakes and tsunamis. He suffered another disaster in 2018 when huge waves were triggered by an earthquake in Sulawesi, killing thousands.

Since 2004, Aceh’s infrastructure has been rebuilt and is now more resilient than before the tsunami. Early warning systems have been installed in coastal areas to alert residents of an approaching tsunami, giving them a crucial moment to get to safety.

The reconstruction efforts were made possible thanks to the support of donors and international organizations, which contributed significant funds to help the region recover. Schools, hospitals and essential infrastructure destroyed by the disaster have been rebuilt.

In Thailand, people gathered at a memorial ceremony in Ban Nam Khem, a small fishing village in Phang Nga province that was hardest hit by the devastating wave that hit the country.

The tsunami claimed more than 8,000 lives in Thailand, many missing, leaving a deep scar in the country’s history. Nearly 400 bodies remain unclaimed.

Mourners shed tears and comforted each other by laying flowers at the village’s tsunami memorial. About 300 people participated in a modest ceremony with Muslim, Christian and Buddhist prayers.

Urai Sirisuk said she avoids the seaside memorial park the rest of the year because the loss of her 4-year-old daughter still hurts deeply every time she thinks about it.

“I feel like the sea has taken my child away. I’m very angry about it. I can’t even put my feet in the water,” she said.

But, she said, “I still hear her voice in my ears, calling to me. I can’t give up on him. So I have to be there for my child.

In India, hundreds of people gathered at Marina Beach in the southern city of Chennai in Tamil Nadu state. They poured milk into the sea to appease the gods and offered flowers and prayers for the dead while drums beat in the background.

According to official data, 10,749 people were killed in India, including almost 7,000 people in Tamil Nadu alone.

“It’s been 20 years since the tsunami,” said Sadayammal, 69, who uses only one name. “We are here to pay tribute to the people who lost their lives.”

In Sri Lanka, survivors and relatives of tsunami victims gathered in the coastal village of Pereliya and laid flowers at a memorial commemorating nearly 2,000 passengers who died when their train, the Queen of the Sea, was struck by the wave. Only a few dozen people are believed to have survived.

Anura Ranjith joined mourners to pay tribute to his younger sister, Anula Ranjani, and her 9-year-old daughter, who were passengers on the train. Ranjith didn’t hear from them after that day.

“I’ve searched everywhere for years and still no information about them. Their loss is a great sadness and pain for me. I’m still grieving,” he said.

In total, more than 35,000 people died in Sri Lanka in the tsunami. People across the country observed two minutes of silence on Thursday in memory of those who lost their lives.

There was little or no warning at the time, but in the years following the 2004 disaster, a tsunami warning system was put in place to help protect the region. A network of seismometers to detect underwater earthquakes, along with tide gauges and ocean buoys, can detect the first signals of the tremors that generate tsunamis, and improved communications networks help transmit these warnings to authorities around the world entire.